


i'm gonna be true if you let me

by picturecat



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel 3490, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 3490 Fest, Engagement, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 09:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19903333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/picturecat/pseuds/picturecat
Summary: Steve and Natasha are getting married. Janet has some strange ideas about their relationship— there's no way Natasha has been in love with him for that long.





	i'm gonna be true if you let me

**Author's Note:**

> A gift for ukumi-chan on tumblr for 3490 Fest.
> 
> Title from "Come Rain or Come Shine" by Ella Fitzgerald. Listen [here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev8gIyXCRYo)

Janet, although usually a little lackluster in her appreciation of weddings, was all over Steve and Natasha’s. 

She’d pinned Steve to go over 1,002 selections of the best photos of them together from candids, formal events, and paparazzi shots— with the daunting task of selecting his favorites. 

“For the slideshow,” she’d insisted, rolling her eyes, when Steve asked whatever for. 

Steve had gamely picked out several dozen by the time they got to a rather old one: a sneaky shot of them at a restaurant from nearly five years ago. 

Natasha looked great in it — her hair was longer then, past her shoulders, and she was wearing a maroon blazer that had gotten a sleeve burnt off of it six months later. 

They were sitting next to each other in barstools, curled toward each other like parentheses. The photographer got Steve in profile, grinning down at Natasha, while Natasha was in three-fourths, mid-laugh with her head tilted up toward Steve. 

Still. 

“No,” Steve said. 

Janet made a wounded noise. “It’s adorable!”

“It’s from before we were dating,” Steve said. 

“That’s part of the _journey,_ ” Jan insisted. “Besides, it may be from before you were dating, but it’s not from before you were in love.”

“Natasha wasn’t in love with me then,” Steve said. “I’ll admit I was carrying a torch, but she had better things to do than mope over me.”

“You are so oblivious, it’s almost cute,” Jan said fondly. “Only almost, though. It’s kind of infuriating, too.”

“I don’t know what you mean unless you tell me,” Steve hummed, clicking to the next photo, one from a gala. Tasha’s shoulders were visibly tight in it, and he recalled the hour he spent massaging the tension out of them afterwards. He skipped it. 

“I mean you should try asking your fiancée how long she’s been in love with you for. If the answer’s not approximately forever, I’ll eat my invite to New York Fashion Week.”

“Sure, Jan,” Steve said, and masterfully repressed a smirk as she gave him what he had come to call the “did Cap just make an internet joke?” squint.

Still, the question did stick with him. In between ordering dizzying amounts of red, orange, and yellow roses and booking about twelve dozen decoy locations, Steve did kind of begin to wonder. 

Natasha had first told him she loved him after a truly rotten day, full of arguments with government officials and reporters and her own employees. By the time she got back to the common floor, she’d been practically vibrating with tension and exhaustion. 

She’d been leaning into him on the couch, her head on his shoulder and her face turned into his neck, and he’d been gamely pretending to still be reading his book instead of hyperfocusing on her breath on his skin. 

Eventually, her coffee mug stopped steaming, and then began to tilt dangerously in her hands. Steve put it on the side table and squeezed her shoulder until she hummed sleepily at him. 

“You’re wiped,” he said. “Let’s get you to bed, Avenger.”

She’d leaned into him on the way to her bedroom — he hadn’t moved into it yet — and when she’d come out of the bathroom with her face washed and her teeth brushed, he was there, smoothing back her blankets. 

She smiled at him. Something about it made his heart squeeze in his chest. 

He leaned in and kissed her, mouth moving softly over hers. Her lips were a little chapped. 

Her eyelashes fluttered as she moved away, and Steve quirked a smile. “Goodnight.”

“Steve?” He stopped at the door, turning back, and drew up short, concern swelling at the unexpectedly serious look on her face. 

“What is it?” 

Natasha cleared her throat. She looked him in the eye and smiled, albeit weakly. “I love you.”

Warmth flowered in his chest, sun-hot and sweet, and he crossed the room to Natasha’s side with a stupid grin on his face.

She responded voraciously when he ducked his head to kiss her again, putting both hands on the back of his head and pulling him close and surging up against his mouth.

He couldn’t quite bring himself to pull away, turning one kiss into two into several, long and drawn-out and unwilling to part. Natasha’s breath fanned out over his face in the brief gaps between kisses, warm and minty.

She pulled away first to inhale deeply and a little shakily, hands stroking down the back of his neck. “I just do,” she murmured. 

“I love you too,” he said, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Of course I do. Can I stay?”

She flashed a smile. “Please.”

He woke up the next morning with Natasha spooning him, her arm over his waist and her face pressed against his spine. He rolled over to return her embrace and resolved, quietly, to spend as many mornings that way as he could. 

That had happened a little over half a year of them dating. Steve had been choking the words back himself, at that point — had been from their first date. He’d been so grateful she had been willing to give them a chance, and so worried he would scare her off if he went too fast. 

He’d never wondered if Natasha had loved him as he had her, quietly and for years — it seemed indulgent and a little silly. Natasha wasn’t one to pine or hesitate, much less over _him._

But they were getting married. It wouldn’t hurt to ask. 

“What do you mean?” Natasha looked up at him, smiling a little bemusedly. “I've loved you for years.”

Steve restrained a sigh. “I know you have,” he said. “I just mean, when did you fall _in_ love with me.”

Natasha leaned away, staring at him, and Steve felt his ears heat. 

“Steve,” Natasha said. “I— that's what I meant. I've been in love with you since, oh, I don't know. Maybe a month after we met.”

It was Steve's turn to stare. “What?”

She gazed back at him defiantly, face a little pink. “At least now I know I wasn't as obvious as I thought I was.”

“Really?” Steve gaped. “You— really?”

“I don't know why you're so surprised,” Natasha said. 

“I just—” Steve scrubbed at the back of his neck. “I'm not entirely sure how. I wasn't really in a good place.”

“Yes, well— you know I was always a bit of a Cap fangirl,” she said. 

“A bit,” Steve smiled slyly. 

“Only a little,” Natasha said with great dignity. “It was my father’s fault, really. So I had a big stupid crush on you the second I saw on you, and I just kind of— you know, I thought it would go away once I got to know you. I just tried not to make a fool of myself in the meantime.”

“So what went wrong?”

“Oh, stop grinning at me, you smug bastard.”

Steve laughed. 

“Anyway, it just kind of snowballed from there,” Natasha added gloomily. “It was the worst thing. Every time I thought I was getting over it I would find you doing something else utterly unbearable— reading old science fiction in the library, or researching microwaves, or— I don't know, darning your socks. It was all very frustrating.”

“I can’t believe—” Steve huffed. “All this time?”

“Always,” she said with a misty smile. “That weird?”

“I hope not,” Steve said fervently, collapsing onto the chair next to her. “I’ve been crazy about you since I found out you and Iron Man were the same person, and it’s not because you came out of that thing in skimpy red lace.”

She took his hand in hers, lifting it up to press a kiss to his knuckles. “The lingerie helped though.”

He kissed her hair. “However it happened, I’m glad.”

“Me too,” Natasha said, smiling brightly. “And don’t look now, but Janet’s headed this way with a folder full of what I’m sure are pressing wedding planning emergencies, so. Wanna play hooky?”

Steve squeezed her hand. “I do.”


End file.
